Wheel supported beds for use in patient care have become more and more sophisticated and more versatile. Beds used as patient supports are now being used to transport patients from a room in which patient care is provided to other facilities within a health care establishment without necessitating removal of the patient from the bed. One of the uses includes a use in a surgical theatre and for multiple types of surgery, such as head, neck and shoulder surgery as well as urological surgeries. The needs of the surgeon for the aforesaid types of surgeries are multiple and are often not available on a single patient supporting bed thereby necessitating the purchase of multiple styles of patient supports in order to accommodate each particular need.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a patient supporting bed having multiple features capable of operative connection to the bed to facilitate multiple and differing uses for the bed, such as surgeries to be performed upon the patient.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient supporting bed, as aforesaid, wherein the patient supporting deck thereof includes a head, seat and foot section with the foot section being composed of two components separately and independently connected to the bed on the edge of the seat remote from the head section.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient supporting bed, as aforesaid, wherein there is provided a fluid receiving receptacle oriented in a normally stowed position beneath the seat section and being deployable to a position immediately below the perineal edge of the seat section, that is, the edge of the seat section remote from the head section.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient supporting bed wherein one of the foot sections serves as a foot end fowler capable of mimicking the articulation of the head section so that a patient supported on the seat section will have the feet supported on the head section and the back resting against the foot end fowler.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient supporting bed, as aforesaid, wherein the structure of the overall bed in the area beneath the foot section is completely open so as to provide an unobstructed space for the surgeon to use during surgical procedures.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient supporting bed having support rails extending coextensively along opposite side edges of the patient support deck and capable of mounting various accessories, such as side rails and/or patient leg supports and the like.